storms, is not severe, nor are the heats of summer oppressive, surrounded as these islands are by such an expanse of ocean. The climate and natural advantages are in many respects equal, if not superior, to those of Madeira; but as yet the islands have met with little attention from either the tourist or invalid. The British consul, in a recent report, pointed out that this was largely owing to the fact that not only the comforts, but many of the necessities of life, are so burdened with duty and transport as to render them quite unattainable. AZOTE. English chemists now mostly concur in giving the name of Nitrogen to the gaseous element which used to be called Azote. The symbol for it too is always N, never A. [ATOMIC THEORY; NITROGEN.] ment degenerated into a complete despotism. When war had been decided upon against any nation by the king and his councils, an ambassador was sent to the chief of that nation, to signify to him the motive of the war and to propose the means of avoiding it. Their knowledge of war, however, and their weapons, were of a very imperfect character; their arms consisting of shields of reeds, cuirasses of cotton, wooden swords edged with obsidian, clubs, slings, bows, and spears. Their principal fortifications were their teocallis or temples. The judicial system of the Aztecs was this. A supreme judge, called cihuacoatl, decided definitely in all matters, both civil and criminal, and appointed some of the inferior judges and also the collectors of the revenues. A tribunal composed AZO'TUS. [ASHDOD.] AZTECS is the name of a tribe who settled of three judges, called tlacatecatl, decided upon all last in that part of America now called Mexico, the cases in the first and second instance. These or New Spain. They were living as a tribe about | judges sat every day to hear all the causes brought the year 1160 of our æra, in Aztlan, a country before them. In civil matters there was an apsituated to the north of the Gulf of California. peal from this tribunal to the cihuacoat!, but not About this time they crossed the Rio Colorado, or in criminal causes. In every quarter or division Red River, at a point beyond 35° N. lat., and of the city there was a certain magistrate elected proceeded south-eastward to the river Gila, where annually by the people, called teuctli. This they lived for some time, as appears from the magistrate judged in the first instance, and was ruins of certain ancient buildings found on the obliged to give an account every day to the banks of that river. After occupying an unim- tlacatecatl of everything that had happened in his portant place among the various tribes for many peculiar district. These tenctli had other inferior years, they gradually acquired, by the early part officers under them. In every commune there of the 14th century, a paramount influence, and were municipal officers elected by the inhabitants. their chiefs became the rulers of the whole country. There were also officers who patrolled and watched The government of the Aztecs was at first during the night. In matters of importance the aristocratical. A body of twenty men of the judges were bound to consult the king. Every most distinguished in the tribe presided over the month, or rather every twenty days, all the affairs of the nation. In 1373 they altered this different judges assembled before the king, when form of government, and chose for their king all the causes still left undecided in their respectAcamapichtle, a noble chief of their own tribe. ive tribunals were finally settled. Their criminal On the death of Huitzilihuitzin, the second king laws were very severe. Treason, voluntary homiof Mexico, it was established as a law, that four cide, robbery of gold or silver, theft in the marof the nobles should elect the king out of the col-ket-place, adultery, and incest, were the crimes lateral relations of the deceased monarch, to the visited with the utmost rigour of the law. Drunkexclusion of his children. This law continued enness in a young man was punished by hanging, till the destruction of the empire. Motezuma- and throwing the body afterwards into the lake, Ilhuicamina, the first of that name, was the great if the offender was of a noble family; if he was legislator of the Aztecs. He also erected the one of the common people, he was made a slave great teocalli of Mexico, made several important for the first offence, and hung for the second. At conquests, and after the great inundation, which the age of seventy a man or a woman might get intook place in 1446, ordered the construction of a toxicated with impunity. No advocates were in magnificent dyke, nine miles long and sixteen use among the Aztecs: the criminal himself confeet and a half wide. In a succession of wars ducted the defence of his own cause. No other with the surrounding states, the Aztecs extended proof could be adduced except witnesses, and in their dominion over all the country comprising the absence of witnesses the criminal was allowed the modern districts of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, to clear himself by an oath. They swore by the Puebla, Mexico, and Valladolid, an extent, ac- sun: the form of taking this oath was to touch cording to Humboldt, of from 18,000 to 20,000 the ground with two fingers and then carry them square leagues. to their mouths. Until the latter times of the empire the royal Among the Aztecs lands were held by different authority was restrained within very narrow tenures: some possessed them in full ownership, limits. The emperors were not allowed to under- and were allowed to transfer them either by sale take any affair of importance which could affect or devise; others held them along with certain the community without first consulting the three offices, and consequently could not dispose of supreme councils of the nation. These councils them. The lands were apportioned among the were composed of the nobility. With the power king, the priests, the nobles, and the people. Ot acquired by conquests the emperors gained every these the nobility alone were full owners; the day more ascendancy over the nation, until, under other three merely enjoyed the use. The com the Emperor Motezuma II., the Aztec govern- non lands were cultivated in common, and the produce was deposited in storehouses, from which useless, were added to the last month. The year all the inhabitants were supplied gratis according was represented in their paintings by a circle, in to their wants. In their paintings the lands of the centre of which they placed a figure intended the king were painted red, those of the nobility to represent the moon illuminated by the sun; scarlet, and those of the people light yellow. All and in the circumference they placed the symbols the inhabitants of the conquered countries were of the eighteen months. The month was divided obliged to pay a tribute in kind to the king, both into four periods of five days each. Thirteen of of the produce of the field and of their industry; their years formed a period analogous to the Roand there was a storehouse in every town in man Indiction, which they called tlalpii; four which the produce of this tax was deposited, and tlalpilli formed a xiuhmolpilli, or ligature of years; proper officers were appointed to collect it. Slavery and two xiuhmolpilli a huehuetiliztli, or old age was admitted among the Aztecs. Slaves were of a hundred and four years. Instead of adding either bought, or persons became so as a punish- one day every fourth year as we do, they added ment for certain crimes, but the son of a slave thirteen days every fifty-two years. They had was in all cases a free man. also a lunar year, by which they regulated their The Aztecs had some imperfect idea of a Su- sacred festivals. They ascertained the hour in preme Being, absolute and eternal, to whom wor- the daytime by the sun, and at night by the ship was due. They believed him to be invisible stars. The names of the different months were and incorporeal, and therefore no representation taken from some festival or from some circumstance of him was either painted or sculptured. They which usually happened in the month, and the gave to this being the name of Teotl. They also same was observed with regard to the names of believed in the existence of an evil spirit, called the days. The days were all designated by a by them Tlacatecolotol, whom they supposed to particular name. At the end of every xiuhmolbe always employed in causing evil to mankind. pilli they held a religious festival, somewhat The souls, both of man and beast, they believed analogous to the sabbatic year of the Jews. to be immortal. According to their notions of a future state, there were three different mansions where men enjoyed a future state of existence. The Aztecs also supposed that four successive revolutions had at different epochs destroyed mankind. Besides the Supreme Being the Aztecs worshipped innumerable divinities. These divinities were worshipped by offering to them sacrifices of human victims, of animals, plants, flowers, and fruits; by prayers, hymns, fastings, and other rigorous penances, in which the worshippers frequently shed their own blood. The human sacrifices were so horrible, that the simple recital of them excites disgust; and so frequent and numerous, that the Mexican historians calculate that no less than 20,000 victims perished every year; but this must be a great exaggeration. The Aztecs had made some progress in the arts of social life. The monuments of architecture, sculpture, and painting which still exist, though very far behind that degree of perfection which these arts had obtained among some of the nations of the old continent, are not devoid of merit. The Aztec painters had no knowledge of perspect ive, nor of light and shade. Their designs are coarse and uncouth; their figures are fantastical, and only drawn in profile, but they are remarkable for the brilliancy and durability of their colours. Their works of architecture and sculpture evince a far superior degree of excellence. The dress of the men consisted merely in a sash tied round the waist, with the two extremities hanging before and behind, and a square mantle, four feet long, the two extremities of which were tied upon the chest. This mantle covered the shoulders and all the body behind. The women wore a square piece of stuff tied round their waists, which descended down to their ankles, and a sort of waistcoat without sleeves. The stuff used by the poor was made of the aloe, and that of the nobles of cotton embroidered with feathers or rabbits' hair. Their shoes consisted in a sole cut out of the leaves of the aloe, fastened to the foot with a cord. The kings wore instead thin plates of silThe Aztecs attended very assiduously to the ver, gold, or copper. None of the Aztecs ever instruction of their children. From their third to cut their hair, with the exception of the virgins their fifteenth year they were instructed in their who were consecrated to the service of the temhouses by their parents. At the age of fifteen ples; the men tied it on the crown of their heads, they were sent to the temples or to some private and the women let it hang down their shoulders. school, to be taught those acquirements which Both men and women wore rings and other ornatheir parents were unable to impart to them. ments in their ears, nose, and under lip, as also Their marriage and burial ceremonies were regu- collars and bracelets. They had public roads and lated by law. inns, also bridges, some of which were suspended The manner adopted by the Aztecs of com- over the torrents. These suspension bridges conputing time shows that they had attained a cer- sisted of a sort of hainmock, made of aloe, and tain degree of astronomical knowledge. They suspended from two trees on each side of the had a solar year of 365 days divided into eighteen stream. The priests were very numerous. Besides serving in the temple, they were employed in educating the youth, in painting the annals of the empire, in forming and regulating the calendar, in composing hymns, and in other scientific and literary pursuits. There were also persons of both sexes devoted to the service of the gods, who lived in retirement, practising very severe aus terities. months, of twenty days each. The five comple- Very extensive and interesting Aztec ruins, which mentary days, which they called nemontemi, or are gradually being explored by modern travellers, are found scattered throughout New Mexico, Ari- | attention to the maritime regulations which have zona, and Northern Mexico. There is scarcely a often been matter of dispute between nations. valley in the Rio Grande basin in which the stone or Azuni was made a senator and judge of the triadobe foundations of villages are not to be found; bunal of commerce of Nizza, in the continental there is scarcely a spring, a lagoon, or a marsh states of the King of Sardinia. In 1795, after upon the plateau which is not overlooked by some the French had taken possession of Nizza, Azuni ruined fortress. Usually these relics crest a com- published his 'Sistema Universale dei Principii manding eminence, not always in close proximity del Diretto Marittimo dell' Europa,' in which he either to the fertile land which supported the com- endeavoured to reduce the maritime laws to fixed munity, or even to the spring which supplied them principles. He afterwards recast his work, and with water. If a stream runs near them, the published it in French at Paris, with the title of remains of acequias, or irrigating canals, are Droit Maritime de l'Europe,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1805. generally to be found. There are many places, This work recommended Azuni to Napoleon's however, where cultivation was successfully carried ministry, who appointed him one of the commison without them, the rainfall alone being relied sioners for the compilation of the new commercial upon, while some ruins show signs of reservoirs code, and intrusted him with the part relative to, and terraces similar to those still in use amongst maritime affairs. the Moquis. In 1807 Azuni was appointed president of the The Aztecs were not acquainted with the art of Court of Appeal at Genoa, which city and terrialphabetic writing, but represented past events tory had been annexed to France. He was afterby means of certain hieroglyphics. The objects wards elected member for the same to the legisla were represented either in full or by such a part of tive corps sitting at Paris, where he published them as was considered sufficient to convey the his Essai sur l'Histoire, Géographique, Politique, meaning of the painter. To record the events et Morale, de la Sardaigne,' 2 vols 8vo., accom of their history they painted round the canvass panied by a map of that island. The second vosigns of the days or years, and close by each lume is entirely occupied by the natural history of sign the hieroglyphics representing the event Sardinia. He continued his functions in the triwhich at that period had taken place. bunal of Genoa until the fall of Napoleon, when The accompanying Plate, descriptive of the he lost his situation. He was soon afterwards chronology of the Aztecs, supplies a good illustra-appointed, by King Charles Felix, judge of the tion of this. It has been very generally received consulate of Cagliari, and librarian to the unias an ancient hieroglyphic representation. versity of the same city. He died at Cagliari in Fortunately, says a recent American writer, January, 1827. His 'Dictionary of Mercantile the sources on this subject are open, and easily Jurisprudence' is much esteemed. accessible in the pages of Sahagun, Solis, Clavigero AZURARA or ZURARA, GOMEZ-EANNES and Prescott. To the published data, it only remains to us to add the following chronological table, from an unpublished Mexican painting or MS., in possession of Mr. E. G. Squier : D', a distinguished Portuguese historian, who was · B. B is the medial letter of the order of labials. It readily interchanges with the letters of the same organ. 1. With v, as habere, Latin, avere, Italian, to have; habebam, Latin, aveva, Ital., I had. In Spain, and the parts of France bordering upon Spain, the letter b often occurs in words which in the kindred languages prefer the v. BAAL. 5. Du before a vowel in the old Latin language became a b in the more common forms of that language. Thus, in the old writings of Rome, we find duonus, good; duellus, fair; duellum, war, &c., in place of bonus, bellus, bellum. The Roman admiral Duilius is sometimes called Bilius; and in the same way we must explain the forms bis (duis), twice, and viginti (dui-ginti), twenty (twain-ty), compared with thir-ty, &c. The modern Greeks pronounce the b, or second letter of their alphabet, like a v: thus Barius is 6. Bi before a vowel has taken the form of a pronounced vasilefs. When they write foreign soft g or j in several French words derived from words, or words of foreign origin, it is not unusual the Latin: cambiare (a genuine Latin word), for them to express our sound of b by μ☛ (mp). | chunger, French; rabies, rage, French; Dibion, It appears probable that the ancient Greeks pro- Dijon; so rouge has for its parent some derivative nounced the 6 more like the Spaniards and modern of rubeo, and cage is from cavea. Greeks than we do; for they sometimes wrote 7. In some dialects of the Greek language a b the Roman names Varro, Virgilius, thus-Baggav, exists (apparently as a kind of aspirate) before Bgys. The Macedonian Greeks wrote the initial r, where the other dialects omit it: as πος thus-Βιλιππος, Bodov, a rose, &c. Again bl and gl are interchanged in dialects of the same language. Thus Baλavos, Greek, and glans, Latin, are perhaps related words; as well as blandus, Latin, signifying soft, mild, calm,' and yaλnvos, Greek, which has the same signification. i. 581) which to a great extent governs the interchange of the mute letters between the Gothic and old High German, viz. that the Gothic tenuis corresponds to the German aspirate, the Gothic medial to the German tenuis, and the Gothic aspirate to the German medial; which may be represented by placing the convertible letters below each other: Gothic P.B. F 2. The interchange of m and b takes place very frequently, especially when they are followed by the liquids or r. Thus aλaxes and Bağ are two Greek nominatives, signifying soft: and BeTos, the Greek for mortal, and mor-i, the Latin for to die, contain a common root. An inter- There is a law (Grimm's 'Deutsche Grammatik,' change of a similar nature marks the difference between the Greek μολυβος or μολυβδος, lead, and the Latin plumbum. If an m in the middle of a word be followed by either of these liquids, the m is retained, but is strengthened by the addition of a b, just as ad inserts itself between n and r. Instances are to be found in nearly all languages: onusga, mid-day, was reduced by the Greek ear to mesembria; the Latin cumulare, to heap, T.D.D has been changed to the French combler; the K.G.Z.T.D CH. K.G. Latin numerus, number, to the French nombre, Old High German F. P. B &c. The Spanish language has examples of a Similarly it will be found that the classical still greater change. Thus, if a Latin word con- languages stand to the Saxon part of our own tain the letters min, after an accented syllable, tongue still more strictly in the same relation, we find in the corresponding Spanish term the viz. :syllable bre or bra: homine, Latin, hombre, Spanish, man; femina, Latin, hembra, Spanish, Latin and Greek P.B.F T.D. K.C.G.H or X. F.P.B TH.T.D English... female; famina (Middle-age Latin), hambre, Spanish, hunger. This corruption arises from a pre- B, in Music. [SCALE.] vious interchange of the n into an r, as in diaconos, BAAL means literally lord, owner; hence also Greek, deacon, diacre in French. The Spaniards husband. The worship of Baal, together with have carried this corruption even further, by that of Astarte, was frequently introduced among changing the Latin suffix tudine (tudo nom.) into the Israelites, especially at Samaria. As the tumbre or dumbre: consuetudine, Latin; cos- Greeks, Germans, and other nations frequently tumbre, Spanish; coutume, French, custom; multi-form the names of men by compounding them tudine, Latin; muchedumbre, Spanish, multitude. with the names of God (for example, Gottlieb, 3. B interchanges with p. Of this the pro- Gotthold, Fürchtegott, Θεόφιλος, Θεόδωρος, Τιμόθεος, nunciation of the English language by the Welsh and Germans presents sufficient examples. 4. With f. Thus the term life-guards appears to have meant originally leib-guards, body-guards, from the German leib, body. H.K. G. &c.), so the Phoenicians and Carthaginians frequently formed names by composition with Baal, as Ethbaal, with Baal,' the name of a king of the Sidonians (1 Kings xvi. 31); Jerubaal, 'Baal will behold it.' Hannibal is written in Punic in criptions in a form which contains the termination. ! At what time and by whom the city was first Baal, grace of Baal;' and also Hasdrubal, help founded is wholly unknown; the style of the of Baal. In Hebrew also many names of cities oc- temples proves that they belong to the Roman cur, compounded with Baal; as Baal-Gad, BaalHammon, Baal-Thamar, &c. The statues erected to Baal were called Baalim, or rather B'alim. The temples and altars of Baal were chiefly built on the tops of hills under trees, and also on the roofs of houses. The worship of Baal gave employment to a numerous priesthood, who burned incense, sacrificed children, danced round the altar, and, if their prayers were not heard, cut themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out. The Phoenicians worshipped the sun as the only lord of heaven, under the name of Beelsamen, whence probably came the notion of Baal being the same as the sun. To worship Baal signifies frequently, in the phraseology of the Jewish writers of the middle ages, to practise the rites of the Christian religion. Rabbi Joseph Ben Josua Ben Meir tells us, in his Chronicles,' that Clovis forsook his God and worshipped Baal, and that a high place was built at Paris for Baal Dionysius, i.e. the cathedral of St. Denis. period. Heliopolis appears to have been made a The area inclosed by the walls of Baalbec contains the great temple, with its courts or fora; and the smaller temple, or perhaps basilica, which is in the best condition of all the buildings. There is also a very singular and unique circular temple, and a curious column, on the highest situation within the walls, which possibly may have been a clepsydra, or water-dial. The circuit of the city walls, according to the plan of Wood and Dawkins, is somewhat less than four miles. The great temple appears, from the plan of Wood and Dawkins, to have been a peripteral pycnostyle temple, having ten columns in front and nineteen on the flank, the columns being BAALBEC, or BALBEC, called by the Greeks 7 feet 10 inches in diameter, and 8 feet 1 Heliópolis, or the City of the Sun, is in Cole- inch apart, except in the centre intercolumnia Syria, in 33° 57 N. lat., 36° 2′ E. long. Major tion of the port co. The length of the temple Rennell (Treatise on the Comparative Geography is near 290 feet, and the width 160: in its perof Western Asia,' vol. i. p. 75) makes the distance fect state, the height from the ground to the top from Tripoli 38 geographical miles, and from of the pediment was 120 feet; the columns with Palmyra 109 geographical miles. the pedestals are 71 feet 6 inches high. The Baalbec signifies, in the Syrian language, the walls of the cella are restored by F. L. Cassas, City of Baal, or the Sun; the Greeks, in chang: (Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie'), with an ining it into Heliopolis, translated the oriental ternal arrangement of columns. It appears that name, which the Romans appear to have retained, a certain Thevet, in 1550, saw twenty-seven until it was again changed into its original Syriac name Balbec. [BAAL.] The city is pleasantly situated on a rising ground, near the north-east extremity of the plain of Bocat, and immediately under the mountainrange called Anti-Libanus. This plain extends from Balbec almost to the sea, in the direction of N.E. by N. to S. W. by S.: the width appears to be in few places more than four leagues, and not in any less than three. columns of the great temple, and esteemed them the greatest wonders of Balbec. (Cosmographie Universelle,' 1. 6, c. 14.) Subsequent travellers mention only nine columns, with an entablature over them; and Volney, in 1785, saw only six standing. The shafts of these columns consist of three pieces, united so exactly, that the blade of a knife cannot be inserted between the joints. The smaller building, called by Mr. Wood 'the more entire temple,' but which appears in some Two rivers, the Litane and the Bardouni, flow respects to resemble an ancient basilica, is very through the plain of Balbec, which is well sup- near the large temple, but built on a lower plied with water. level, the bottom of the basement of the It is probable that the advantages arising from great temple being nearly as high as the top of its commerce with Tyre, its connection with the basement of the smaller edifice. The site of Palmyra, and the traffic with India, may have these buildings being very uneven, the basement been the source of the ancient wealth of Balbec, on the south side is raised considerably, with a and the means of erecting those edifices the ruins solid foundation of large stones. This building is of which still exist. The ruins in front of the peripteral; the columns are also pycnostyle, and great temple were most probably designed for the portico is dipteral with a pseudo-intercolumniafora (markets or places of business), and are tion before the antæ of the pronaos. We conjectherefore provided with suitable shady porticoes and exhedræ, in which the merchants could conveniently transact their affairs. The history of the place itself is very obscure; but two Roman inscriptions of the time of Antoninus Pius show that it was then a place of some importance, under the name of Heliopolis. Bocat is variously written-Bocat, Bekka, Beka, Bquaa, and Bokah. (See Wood and Dawkins, Bruce, De la Roque, Rennell, &c.) ture this building to have been a basilica, from the similarity of its internal arrangement to the basi lica in the forum of Pompeii: it has, among other features of the basilica, the raised platform at the end, with the vaults below it and steps descending into them. The circular building may be considered unique. Travellers have called it a temple. It is of the Corinthian order, with niches on the exterior of |