Ayrshire
a county of Scotland, in the southwestern division. It has an area of 1,132 square miles. The county for the most part is hilly. It has important dep leposits of minerals, including coal, limestone , and freestone. Agriculture is highly developed and cattle raising has reached an advanced state. The leading manufactures are iron, textiles, and lace. There are also important fisheries and shipyards . The capital is Ayr. Other important towns are Kilmarnock, Ardrossan, and Dundonald . Pop. about 275,000.
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Aytoun
WILLIAM EDMOND- STOUNE, poet and prose writer, born at Edinburgh in 1813; studied at the University of Edinburgh, became a writer to the signet in 1835, and passed as advocate in 1840. He issued a volume of poems in 1832, by 1836 was a contributor to "Blackwood's Magazine," and he published the "Life and Times of Richard I." in 1845. In 1848 he published a collection of ballads entitled "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers," which has proved the most popular of all his works. He also published the "Bon Gaultier Ballads" (parodies and other humorous pieces, in conjunction with Theodore Martin), 1855; in 1856 the poem "Bothwell," and in subsequent years by "Norman Sinclair," "The Glenmutchkin Railway," and other stories. In 1858 he edited a critical and annotated collection of the "Ballads of Scotland." A translation of the poems and ballads of Goethe was executed by him in conjunction with Theodore Martin. In 1845 he became Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of Edinburgh, a place he held till his death. In 1852 he was appointed sheriff of Orkney and Shetland . He died at Blackhills, Elgin, 1865.
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Ayuntamiento
the name given in Spain to the councils or governing bodies of towns. Sprung from the institutions of the Romans, and firmly established during the long struggles with the Moors, the ayuntamientos acquired great influence and political power, the nobility being admitted to them without their class privileges. The ayuntamiento, with the alcalde as president, was appointed by the free choice of the people. The government could provisionally annul its acts , but must afterward procure the ratification of the Cortes. The ayuntamientos were empowered to make up the lists of electors and jurors, to organize the national guards, to command the police within their own bounds, to direct the apportionment and raising of taxes, etc. The municipal law of 1870 deprived them of all political authority, and regulated them as administrative bodies, subject in certain respects to the authorities of the provinces, the law courts, and the Cortes.
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Azael
One of the angels who revolted against God. The rabbis say that he is chained on sharp stones, in an obscure part of the desert, awaiting the last judgment. Azam, Dr.: (See Hypnotism ).
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Azazel
A demon of the second order, guardian of the goat. At the feast of expiation, which the Jews celebrate on the tenth day of the seventh month, two goats are led to the High Priest, who draws lots for them, the one for the Lord, the other for Azazel. The one on which the lot of the Lord fell was sacrificed, and his blood served for expiation. The High Priest then put his two hands on the head of the other, confessed his sins and those of the people, charged the animal with them, and allowed him to be led into the desert and set free. And the people, having left the care of their iniquities to the goat of Azazel -also known as the scape-goat-return home with clean consciences. According to Milton, Azazel is the principal standard-bearer of the infernal armies. It is also the name of the demon used by Mark the heretic for his magic spells.
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Azeglio
MASSIMO TAPARELLI, MARQUIS D', an Italian author, artist, diplomatist , and statesman, born at Turin , in 1801, was the descendant of an ancient and noble Piedmontese family. At the age of 14 he was excommunicated for an assault upon his teacher, who was an ecclesiastic. In 1816 he accompanied his father to Rome, where he he studied painting and music. In 1830 he married the daughter The earliest of these, of Manzoni, the great novelist, and wrote several romances. next romance, "Ettore Fieramosca," published in 1833, found great favor . His next "Niccolò de' Lapi," published eight years afterward, became equally popular, and is esteemed by Italian critics the best historical novel in any language. In 1842 Azeglio abandoned his favorite pursuits, and, with his friends, Balbo and Gioberti, he made a tour through the provinces of Italy, awakening the revolutionary spirit which troubled the last years of Gregory XVI. After the Revolution of 1848 he supported the cause of the King of Piedmont, and, at the head of the Papal troops, fought against the Austrians at Vicenza, where he was wounded. In 1849, Victor Emmanuel appointed him President of the Cabinet of Ministers, which office he resigned in 1852 to his political adversary, Count Cavour. In 1859, after the peace of Villafranca, he undertook a confidential mission as Ambassador Extraordinary to England; and was afterward appointed governor of the city of Milan. He died Jan. 15, 1866.
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Azer
An angel of the elemental fire. Azer is also the name of the father of Zoroaster. Axinomancy: Divination by means of a hatchet or a woodcutter's axe. It is by this form of divination that Azoth: (See Philosopher's Stone). the diviners predicted the ruin of Jerusalem, as is seen Aztecs : (See Mexico and Central America ).
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Azimuth
the angular distance of a celestial object from the N. or S. point of the horizon (according as it is the N. or S. pole which is elevated), when the object is referred to the horizon by a vertical circle. Or the angle comprised between two vertical planes, one passing through the elevated pole, the other through the object. It is generally reckoned reckoned eastward or westward, from the N. or S. point for 180° either way; but Herschel prefers always reckoning it from the points of the horizon most remote from the elevated pole westward, so as to agree in its general direction with the apparent diurnal motion of the stars. Of course, he therefore counts from 0° to 360°. Azimuths, called also vertical circles, are great circles intersecting each other in the zenith and nadir, and cutting the horizon at right angles in all the points thereof. On these are reckoned the altitude of the stars, and of the sun when he is not in the meridian. A magnetical azimuth is an arch of the horizon, contained between the sun's azimuth circle and the magnetical meridian; or it is the apparent distance of the sun from the N. or S. point of the compass.
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