Alrunes
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) Female demons or sorceresses, the mothers of the Huns . They took all sorts of shapes, but without changing their sex. The name was given by the Germans to little statues of old sorceresses, about a foot high. To these they attributed great virtues, honouring them as the negroes honour their fetishes; clothing them richly, housing them comfortably, and serving them with food and drink at every meal. They believed that if these little images were neglected they would cry out, a catastrophe which was to be avoided at all costs, as it brought dire misfortunes upon the household. They may have been mandrakes, and it was claimed for them that they could foretell the future, answering by means of motions of the head, or unintelligible words. They are still consulted in Norway.
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Alsberg
CARL LUCAS, an American biochemist, born in New York in He graduated from Columbia 1877. University in 1896 and later studied in Germany. He was in the chemical department of Harvard University from 1905 to 1908. In the latter year he became chemical biologist for the Bureau of Plant Industry, serving until 1912, when he became Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in the United States Department of Agriculture. He was a member of many chemical societies.
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Alsike
a kind of clover. It is also called Swedish clover. Alsike is the name of a parish in Sweden. Alsike has slender, branching, half reclining stems, and bears pinkish heads. Linnaeus called it "hybridum," meaning that it is half way between white and red clover. Alsike will grow on wetter soil than red clover. See Clover ; Alfalfa
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Altai Mountains
an important Asiatic system on the borders of Siberia and Mongolia, partly in Russian and partly in Chinese territory, lying between lat. 46° and 53° N., long. 83° and 91° E., but having great eastern extensions. The Russian portion is comprised in the governments of Tomsk and Semipalatinsk, the Chinese in Dsungaria. The rivers of this region are mostly headwaters of the Obi and Irtish. The highest summit is Byeluka, height 11,000 feet. The vegetation is varied and abundant. The mountain forests are composed of birch, alder, aspen, fir, larch, stone pine, etc. The wild sheep has here its native home and several kinds of deer occur. The Altai are exceedingly rich in minerals, including gold, silver, copper, and iron. The inhabitants consist chiefly of Russians and Kalmuks.
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Altenburg
the capital of the former Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, situated on the Pleisse, 30 miles S. of Leipsic. Standing on an almost perpendicular rock of porphyry, the old castle of Altenburg forms a striking feature in the landscape. It is memorable as the place whence, in 1455, a neighboring knight, Kunz von Kaufungen, the young Saxon princes, Ernest and Albert. Before he could reach the Bohemian frontier, he was apprehended by a charcoal burner, and handed over to the Brushes, woolen goods, executioner. gloves, and cigars are among the manufactures. The Pop. about 45,000. Duchy became a republic in 1918.
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Althaea
Daughter of Thestius and Eurythemis, of married Oeneus , king of Calydon , by whom she had many children, among them being Meleager . When he was born the Parcae put a log of wood on the fire, saying as long as it was preserved the life of the child would be prolonged. The mother took the wood from the flames and preserved it, but when Meleager killed his two uncles because they had insulted Atalanta , Althaea, to revenge them, threw the log in the fire, and when it was burnt Meleager expired. Althaea then killed herself. woded
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Althea
. See Meleager
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Alto
in music, the highest singing voice of a male adult, the lowest of boy or a woman, being in the latter almost the same as contralto. The alto, or counter-tenor, is not a natural voice, but a development of the falsetto.
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Alto-Rilievo
or ALTO-RELIEVO, sculptured work of which the figures project more than half their true proportions. When they project just one-half, the term used is mezzo-relievo; and when less than half, basso-relievo, or in English, bas-relief. ALTRANSTÄDT (älträn-stedt), an important village in the Prussian province of Saxony, near Lützen. It is famous for its castle, where, on Sept. 24, 1706, Charles XII. of Sweden signed the peace with August II., King of Poland. By this treaty, August II. agreed to vacate the Polish throne, not to enter any alliances against Sweden, especially any with the Czar, and to give up the Livlander Patkul, to grant the Swedish winter quarters in Saxony, and pledge himself not to persecute the Evangelical Church. This treaty did not go into effect until Nov. 26, because August felt that, by reason of a previous peace, he was obliged to support the Russians in their attack upon the Swedish General Mardefeld. After the defeat of Charles XII. at Poltava, August II., on Aug. 8, 1709, declared the Peace of Altranstädt to be void under the pretext that his representatives had exceeded their authority. Through the Treaty of Altranstädt of Aug. 30, 1707, Charles XII. obtained from the Emperor Joseph I. religious liberty and toleration of the Protestants of Silesia.
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Alton
a city in Madison co., III., on the Mississippi river, 5 miles above the mouth of the Missouri, and on several trunk line railroads; 21 miles N. of St. Louis, Mo. It is built on a high limestone bluff, and has very picturesque surroundings. The Mississippi is ALTRANSTÄDT here spanned by a costly railroad bridge, and the city is connected with Upper Alton, 2 miles distant, by a trolley line. Alton has important manufactures, and a large river trade. Here are the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Joseph's Hospital, Ursuline Convent (all Roman Catholic), Hayner Memorial Public Library, Monticello Seminary, Old Women's Home, several National banks, and daily and weekly newspapers. Upper Alton is the seat of Shurtleff College (Baptist), and hurt stitute. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the abolitionist, was murdered at Alton by a mob in 1837. A monument to his memory Pop. (1910) erected in 1897. was 17,528; (1920) 24,682.
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