[1] _De Ill. Angl. Script._ (1619, p. 467).
[2] _Script. Ill. Maj. Brit._ cent. v. No. 69.
[3] _De Ill. Angl. Script._ (1619, p. 468).
AUNT SALLY, the English name for a game popular at fairs, race-courses
and summer resorts. It consists in throwing hard balls, of wood or
leather-covered yarn, at puppets dressed to represent different
characters, originally a grotesque female figure called "Aunt Sally,"
with the object of smashing a clay pipe which is inserted either in the
mouth or forehead of the puppet. In France the game is popular under the
name _jeu de massacre_. In a variation of the pastime the mark consists
of a living person's head thrust through a hole in a sheet of canvas. In
case of a hit a second shy is allowed, or a small prize is given.
AURA (from the Gr. for "breath" or "breeze"), a term used in old days to
denote a supposed ethereal emanation from a volatile substance; applied
later to the "electrical aura," or air-current caused by electrical
discharge; in epilepsy (q.v.) to one of its premonitory symptoms; and
in spiritualism to a mysterious light associated with the presence of
spirit-forms. See also AUREOLA.
AURANGABAD, or AURUNGABAD, a city of India, in the dominions of the
nizam of Hyderabad, north-west division, situated 138 m. from Poona, 207
from Bombay via Poona, and 270 from Hyderabad on the river Kaum. It
gives its name to a district. It was founded in 1610, under the name of
Fatchnagar, by Malik Ambar, an Abyssinian, who had risen from the
condition of a slave to great influence. Subsequently it became the
capital of the Mogul conquests in the south of India. Aurangzeb, who
erected here a mausoleum to his wife which has been compared to the Taj
at Agra, made the city the seat of his government during his viceroyalty
of the Deccan, and gave it the name of Aurangabad. It thus grew into the
principal city of an extensive province of the same name, stretching
westward to the sea, and comprehending nearly the whole of the territory
now comprised within the northern division of the presidency of Bombay.
Aurangabad long continued to be the capital of the succession of
potentates bearing the modern title of nizam, after those chiefs became
independent of Delhi. They abandoned it subsequently, and transferred
their capital to Hyderabad, when the town at once began to decline.
Aurangabad is a railway station on the Hyderabad-Godavari line, 435 m.
from Bombay. In 1901 the population, with military cantonments, was
36,837, showing an increase of 8% in the decade. It has a cotton mill.
The district of Aurangabad has an area of 6172 sq. m. The population in
1901 was 721,407. It contains the famous caves of Ajanta, and also the
battlefield of Assaye.
AURANGZEB (1618-1707), one of the greatest of the Mogul emperors of
Hindustan, was the third son of Shah Jahan, and was born in November
1618. His original name, Mahommed, was changed by his father, with whom
he was a favourite, into Aurangzeb, meaning ornament of the throne, and
at a later time he assumed the additional titles of Mohi-eddin, reviver
of religion, and Alam-gir, conqueror of the world. At a very early age,
and throughout his whole life, he manifested profound religious feeling
perhaps instilled into him in the course of his education under some of
the strictest Mahommedan doctors. He was employed, while very young, in
some of his father's expeditions into the country beyond the Indus, gave
promise of considerable military talents, and was appointed to the
command of an army directed against the Uzbegs. In this campaign he was
not completely successful, and soon after was transferred to the army
engaged in the Deccan. Here he gained several victories, and in
conjunction with the famous general, Mir Jumla, who had deserted from
the king of Golconda, he seized and plundered the town of Hyderabad,
which belonged to that monarch. His father's express orders prevented
Aurangzeb from following up this success, and, not long after, the
sudden and alarming illness of Shah Jahan turned his thoughts in another
direction. Of Shah Jahan's four sons, the eldest, Dara, a brave and
honourable prince, but disliked by the Mussulmans on account of his
liberality of thought, had a natural right to the throne. Accordingly,
on the illness of his father, he at once seized the reins of government
and established himself at Delhi. The second son, Shuja, governor of
Bengal, a dissolute and sensual prince, was dissatisfied, and raised an
army to dispute the throne with Dara. The keen eye of Aurangzeb saw in
this conjuncture of events a favourable opportunity for realising his
own ambitious schemes. His religious exercises and temperate habits gave
him, in popular estimation, a great superiority over his brothers, but
he was too politic to put forward his claims openly. He made overtures
to his younger brother Murad, governor of Gujarat, representing that
neither of their elder brothers was worthy of the kingdom, that he
himself had no temporal ambition, and desired only to place a fit
monarch on the throne, and then to devote himself to religious exercises
and make the pilgrimage to Mecca. He therefore proposed to unite his
forces to those of Murad, who would thus have no difficulty in making
himself master of the empire while the two elder brothers were divided
by their own strife. Murad was completely deceived by these crafty
representations, and at once accepted the offer. Their united armies
then moved northward. Meanwhile Shah Jahan had recovered, and though
Dara resigned the crown he had seized, the other brothers professed not
to believe in their father's recovery, and still pressed on. Shuja was
defeated by Dara's son, but the imperial forces under Jaswant Singh were
completely routed by the united armies of Aurangzeb and Murad. Dara in
person took the field against his brothers, but was defeated and
compelled to fly. Aurangzeb then, by a clever stroke of policy, seized
the person of his father, and threw him into confinement, in which he
was kept for the remaining eight years of his life. Murad was soon
removed by assassination, and the way being thus cleared, Aurangzeb,
with affected reluctance, ascended the throne in August 1658. He quickly
freed himself from all other competitors for the imperial power. Dara,
who again invaded Gujarat, was defeated and closely pursued, and was
given up by the native chief with whom he had taken refuge. He was
brought up to Delhi, exhibited to the people, and assassinated. Shuja,
who had been a second time defeated near Allahabad, was attacked by the
imperial forces under Mir Jumla and Mahommed, Aurangzeb's eldest son,
who, however, deserted and joined his uncle. Shuja was defeated and fled
to Arakan, where he perished; Mahommed was captured, thrown into the
fortress of Gwalior, and died after seven years' confinement. No similar
contest disturbed Aurangzeb's long reign of forty-six years, which has
been celebrated, though with doubtful justice, as the most brilliant
period of the history of Hindustan. The empire certainly was wealthy and
of enormous extent, for there were successively added to it the rich
kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda, but it was internally decaying and
ready to crumble away before the first vigorous assault. Two causes
principally had tended to weaken the Mogul power. The one was the
intense bigotry and intolerant policy of Aurangzeb, which had alienated
the Hindus and roused the fierce animosity of the haughty Rajputs. The
other was the rise and rapid growth of the Mahratta power. Under their
able leader, Sivaji, these daring freebooters plundered in every
direction, nor could all Aurangzeb's efforts avail to subdue them. For
the last twenty-six years of his life Aurangzeb was engaged in wars in
the Deccan, and never set foot in his own capital. At the close of the
long contest the Mogul power was weaker, the Mahratta stronger than at
first. Still the personal ability and influence of the emperor were
sufficient to keep his realms intact during his own life. His last years
were embittered by remorse, by gloomy forebodings, and by constant
suspicion, for he had always been in the habit of employing a system of
espionage, and only then experienced its evil effects. He died on the
3rd of March 1707 at Ahmadnagar, while engaged on an extensive but
unfortunate expedition against the Mahrattas.
See Lane-Poole, _Aurangzib_, "Rulers of India" series (1893).
AURAY, a town of France near the mouth of the Auray river, in the
department of Morbihan, 12 m. W. of Vannes on the railway between that
town and Lorient. Pop. (1906) 5241. Its port, which is formed by the
channel of the river and divides the town into two parts, is frequented
by coasting and fishing vessels. The principal buildings are the church
of St Esprit (13th century) now secularized; the Renaissance church of
St Gildas; the town-hall (18th century); and, at a short distance from
the town, the Carthusian monastery, now a deaf and dumb institute, on
the site of the battle of 1364, at which Charles of Blois was defeated
by John of Montfort (see BRITTANY: _History_). Adjoining the Chartreuse
is a small chapel in which are preserved the bones of the Royalists
captured by the Republicans in a battle fought near the spot in 1795. In
the neighbourhood is the church of Sainte Anne d'Auray, one of the
principal places of pilgrimage in Brittany. Auray is one of the chief
centres in France for oyster-breeding, and carries on boat-building and
sardine-fishing.
AURELIA, VIA, an ancient highroad of Italy, the date of the construction
of which is unknown. It ran from Rome to Alsium, where it reached the
sea, and thence along the south-west coast of Italy, perhaps originally
only as far as Cosa, and was later extended to Vada Volaterrana, and in
109 B.C. to Genua and Dertona by means of the Via Aemilia, though a
coast road as far as Genua at least must have existed long before. The
name is applied in the Antonine Itinerary to these extensions, and even
to the prolongation to Aries. Its line is in the main closely followed
by the modern coast highroad; cf., however, for the section between Cosa
and Populonia, O. Cuntz in _Jahreshefte des Oslerr. arch. Instituts_,
vii. (1904), 54. (T. As.)
AURELIAN [LUCIUS DOMITIUS AURELIANUS], one of the greatest of the Roman
soldier emperors, was born at Sirmium in Pannonia between A.D. 212-214.
He was of humble origin, but nothing definite is known of his family. He
had always shown great enthusiasm for a military career, and so
distinguished himself in the campaigns in which he took part that on one
occasion he received a public vote of thanks. At the same time he was
proclaimed consul elect, and adopted by Ulpius Crinitus, military
governor of Illyria and Thrace. On the death of the emperor Claudius II.
Gothicus (270), Aurelian was proclaimed his successor with the universal
approval of the soldiers. His first task was to continue the war which
had been begun by Claudius against the Goths. He drove them out of
Moesia across the Danube, where he left them in possession of Dacia,
which he did not think himself able to retain; the name was transferred
to Moesia, which was then called Dacia Aureliani. The chronology,
however, of Aurelian's reign is very confused, and the abandonment of
Dacia is placed by some authorities towards its close. He next entered
upon campaigns against the Juthungi, Alamanni, and other Germanic
tribes, over whom, after a severe defeat which was said to have
imperilled the very existence of the empire, he at length obtained a
complete victory. Having thus secured the Rhine and Danube frontiers, he
turned his energies towards the east, and in 271 set out on his
expedition against Zenobia, queen of Palmyra (q.v.). At the same time he
crushed two pretenders to the throne--Firmus and Tetricus. Firmus, a
wealthy merchant of Seleucia, had proclaimed himself emperor of Egypt.
Aurelian, who was at the time in Mesopotamia, hastened thither, and
ordered him to be seized and put to death. Tetricus, who had been
proclaimed emperor in the west after the death of Gallienus, and left
undisturbed by Claudius II., still ruled over Gaul, Spain and Britain. A
decisive battle was fought near the modern Chalons, in which Tetricus
was defeated. The restoration of the unity of the empire was thus
complete. In 274 a brilliant triumph, adorned by the persons of Zenobia
and Tetricus, was celebrated at Rome.
Aurelian now turned his attention to the internal affairs of the empire.
He introduced sumptuary laws; relieved the poor by distributions of
bread and meat, proceeded with great severity against informers and
embezzlers; began the construction of various public works and
buildings; and proclaimed a general amnesty for political crimes. The
restoration and enlargement of the walls of Rome, commenced by him, was
not completed till the reign of Probus. An attempt to restore the
standard of the coinage is said to have caused a revolt of the workmen
and officials connected with the mint, which was only put down with the
loss of 7000 soldiers. It has been suggested that this was really an
attempt at revolution incited by the senate and praetorian guards, the
opportunity being found in disturbances resulting from opposition to the
attempted reform, which by themselves could hardly have assumed such
serious proportions. Aurelian's restless spirit was not long able to
endure a life of inaction in the city. Towards the end of 274, he
started on an expedition against the Persians, halting in Thrace by the
way. While on the march between Heracleia and Byzantium, at the
beginning of the following year, he was assassinated through the
treachery of his secretary Eros, who, in order to escape the discovery
of his own irregularities, incited certain officers against the emperor
by showing them a forged list, on which their names appeared as marked
out for death.
Aurelian well deserved the title of restorer of the empire, and it must
be remembered that he lived in an age when severity was absolutely
necessary. He was a great soldier and a rigid but just disciplinarian.
In more favourable circumstances he would have been a great
administrator. He displayed a fondness for pomp and show on public
occasions; he was the first Roman emperor to wear the diadem, and
assumed the title of Lord and God on medals.
The chief authority for the events of Aurelian's reign is his life by
Vopiscus, one of the writers of the "Augustan History"; it is founded
on Greek memoirs and certain journals deposited in the Ulpian library
at Rome. See L. Homo, _Le Regne de l'empereur Aurelien_ (1904), and
Groag's art. in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_, v. 1347 foll.
AURELIANUS, CAELIUS, a physician of Sicca in Numidia, who probably
flourished in the 5th century A.D., although some place him two or even
three centuries earlier. In favour of the later date is the nature of
his Latin, which shows a strong tendency to the Romance, and the
similarity of his language to that of Cassius Felix, also an African
medical writer, who about 450 wrote a short treatise, chiefly based on
Galen. We possess a translation by Aurelianus of two works of Soranus of
Ephesus (2nd century), the chief of the "methodist" school of medicine,
on chronic and acute maladies--_Tardae_ or _Chronicae Passiones_, in
five, and _Celeres_ or _Acutae Passiones_ in three books. The
translation, which is especially valuable since the original has been
lost, shows that Soranus possessed considerable practical skill in the
diagnosis of ordinary and even of exceptional diseases. It is also
important as containing numerous references to the methods of earlier
medical authorities. We also possess considerable fragments of his
_Medicinales Responsiones_, also adapted from Soranus, a general
treatise on medicine in the form of question and answer; it deals with
rules of health (_salutaria praecepta_) and the pathology of internal
diseases (ed. Rose, _Anecdota Graeca et Latina_, ii., 1870). Where it is
possible to compare Aurelianus's translation with the original--as in a
fragment of his Gynaecia with Soranus's [Greek: Peri gynaikeion
Pathon]--it is found that it is literal, but abridged. There is
apparently no MS. of the treatises in existence. (Editions: Amman, 1709;
Haller, 1774.)
AURELLE DE PALADINES, LOUIS JEAN BAPTISTE D' (1804-1877), French
general, was born at Malzieu, Lozere, on the 9th of January 1804. He was
educated at St Cyr, and entered the army as sub-lieutenant of foot in
1824. He served with distinction in Algeria between 1841 and 1848,
becoming lieut.-colonel and an officer of the Legion of Honour; took
part in the Roman campaigns of 1848 and 1849, and was made colonel. He
served as general of brigade throughout the Crimean War of 1854-56,
being promoted general of division and commander of the Legion of
Honour. During the campaign in Lombardy in 1859 he commanded at
Marseilles, and superintended the despatch of men and stores to the seat
of war, and for his services he was made a grand officer of the Legion
of Honour. Placed on the reserve list in 1869, he was recalled to the
Marseilles command on the outbreak of the Franco-German War of 1870-71.
After the first capture of Orleans by the Germans, he was appointed by
the Government of National Defence, in November 1870, to the command of
the Army of the Loire. He was at first very successful against von der
Tann-Rathsamhausen, winning the battle of Coulmiers and compelling the
Germans to evacuate Orleans, but the capitulation of Metz had set free
additional German troops to oppose him, and, after his defeat at Beaune
la Rolande and subsequent unsuccessful fighting near Orleans, resulting
in its recapture by the Germans in December, Aurelle retreated into the
Sologne and was superseded. After the armistice he was elected to the
National Assembly by the departments both of Allier and Gironde. He sat
for Allier and was one of the fifteen officers chosen to assist in the
peace negotiations. He was decorated with the grand cross of the Legion
of Honour, and was given the command at Bordeaux, but retired in 1872.
Elected a life senator in 1875, he supported the monarchical majority of
1876. He died at Versailles on the 17th of December 1877. He was the
author of _La Premiere Armee de la Loire_, published in 1872.
AUREOLA, AUREOLE (diminutive of Lat. _aura_, air), the radiance of
luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, is represented
as surrounding the whole figure. In the earliest periods of Christian
art this splendour was confined to the figures of the persons of the
Godhead, but it was afterwards extended to the Virgin Mary and to
several of the saints. The aureola, when enveloping the whole body, is
generally oval or elliptical in form, but is occasionally circular or
quatrefoil. When it is merely a luminous disk round the head, it is
called specifically a _nimbus_, while the combination of nimbus and
aureole is called a _glory_. The strict distinction between nimbus and
aureole is not commonly maintained, and the latter term is most
frequently used to denote the radiance round the heads of saints, angels
or persons of the Godhead. The _nimbus_ in Christian art appeared first
in the 5th century, but practically the same device was known still
earlier, though its history is obscure, in non-Christian art. Thus
(though earlier Indian and Bactrian coins do not show it) it is found
with the gods on some of the coins of the Indian kings Kanishka,
Huvishka and Vasudeva, 58 B.C. to A.D. 41 (Gardner's _Cat. of Coins of
Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India_, Brit. Mus. 1886, plates
26-29). And its use has been traced through the Egyptians to the Greeks
and Romans, representations of Trajan (arch of Constantine) and
Antoninus Pius (reverse of a medal) being found with it. In the circular
form it constitutes a natural and even primitive use of the idea of a
crown, modified by an equally simple idea of the emanation of light from
the head of a superior being, or by the meteorological phenomenon of a
halo. The probability is that all later associations with the symbol
refer back to an early astrological origin (cf. MITHRAS), the person so
glorified being identified with the sun and represented in the sun's
image; so the aureole is the _Hvareno_ of Mazdaism. From this early
astrological use the form of "glory" or "nimbus" has been adapted or
inherited under new beliefs.
AURICH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, chief
town of the district of East Friesland, on the Ems-Jade canal, 18 m.
N.W. from Emden by rail. Pop. (1900) 6013. It is built in the Dutch
style, and lies in a sandy but fertile plain, surrounded by pleasant
promenades which have taken the place of the old fortifications. It has
a palace, formerly the residence of the counts of East Friesland and now
used as government offices, a Roman Catholic and two Protestant
churches, a gymnasium, and four libraries. There are breweries and
small manufactories of paper and tobacco. Close by is the
_Upstallsboom_, the hill of oath and liberty, where every year at
Whitsuntide representatives of the seven Frisian coast lands assembled
to deliberate.
See Wiarda, _Bruchstucke zur Geschichte der Stadt Aurich_ (Emden,
1835).
AURICLE (from Lat. diminutive of _auris_, ear), the external ear in
animals, or an analogous part in plants, &c. From a supposed resemblance
to the ear of a dog, the term was applied to the upper cavities of the
heart. The adjective "auricular" is more specially used in the phrase
"auricular confession" (see CONFESSION), i.e. private.
AURICULA (_Primula auricula_), an Alpine plant, which has been an inmate
of British gardens for about three hundred years, and is still prized by
florists as a favourite spring flower. It loves a cool soil and shady
situation. The florists' varieties are grown in rich composts, for the
preparation of which numberless receipts have been given; but many of
the old nostrums are now exploded, and a more rational treatment has
taken their place. Thus Mr Douglas writes (_Hardy Florists' Flowers_):--
"There is no mystery, as some suppose, about the potting, any more
than there is about the potting material. The compost should consist
of turfy loam four parts, leaf-mould one part, sharp river or silver
sand one part, and a few bits of broken charcoal mixed with it. The
pots to be used should be from 3 to 4-1/2 in. in diameter, inside
measure; about 1 in. of potsherds should be placed in the bottom of
each pot, and over this some fibrous turf, from which the fine
particles of earth have been removed. The old soil should be shaken
from the roots of the plants to be potted; and before potting cut off,
if necessary, a portion of the main root. In potting press the soil
rather firmly around the roots."
Auriculas are best grown in a cold frame mounted on legs about 2 ft.
from the ground, and provided with hinged sashes. A graduated stage
formed of wood battens 6 in. broad, with a rise of 2 in., should be
fixed so as to take each one row of pots, with the plants standing at
about 15 in. from the glass; the spaces between the shelves should be
closed, while the top board of the back and the front should be hinged
so as to be let down when desired for ventilation, the sashes, too,
being movable for the same purpose, and also to afford facilities for
examining and attending to the plants. This frame should face the north
from May to October, and south in winter. No protection will be needed
except in very severe frosts, when two or three thicknesses of garden
mats may be thrown over the glass, and allowed to remain on until the
soil is thawed, should it become frozen.
Auriculas may be propagated from seed, which is to be sown as soon as
ripe, in July or August, in boxes, kept under cover, and exposed only to
the rays of the morning sun. When seed has been saved from the finer
sorts, the operation is one of considerable nicety, as it not
unfrequently happens that the best seedlings are at first exceedingly
weak. They generally flower in the second or third year, a few good
sorts being all that can be expected from a large sowing. The
established varieties are increased by taking off the offshoots, an
operation performed at the time of potting in July or the beginning of
August. But some varieties are very shy in producing offsets.
The original of the auricula is a hardy perennial herb, of dwarf habit,
bearing dull yellowish blossoms. This and the commoner forms raised from
seed, as well as one or two double forms, are interesting hardy border
flowers. The choice florists' varieties are divided into five
classes:--the _green-edged_, with the margins of the flowers green; the
_grey-edged_, with the green margins powdered with meal so as to appear
to be coloured grey; the _white-edged_, with the mealy powder so dense
as to cover the green; the _selfs_, which have none of the green
variegation of margin seen in the foregoing, but are of some distinct
colour, as purple, maroon, &c., but have, like the preceding, a white
paste surrounding the eye; and the _alpines_, which resemble the selfs
in not having any green marginal variegation, but differ in having a
yellow centre more or less dense. The individual flowers of the first
three groups of florists' auriculas show four distinct circles:--first
the eye or tube, which should have the stamens lying in it, but
sometimes has the pin-headed stigma instead, which is a defect; second,
the paste or circle of pure white surrounding the eye; third, the body
colour, a circle of some dark tint, as maroon or violet, which feathers
out more or less towards the edge, but is the more perfect the less it
is so feathered, and is quite faulty if it breaks through to the outer
circle; fourth, the margin, which is green or grey or white. These
circles should be about equal in width and clearly defined, and the
nearer they are to this standard the more perfect is the flower. In the
group of selfs the conditions are the same, except that there is no
margin, and consequently the body colour, which should be uniform in
tone, extends to the edge. In the alpines there should be no paste or
white surrounding the eye, but this space should be either golden-yellow
or creamy-yellow, which makes two subdivisions in this group; and the
body colour is more or less distinctly shaded, the edges being of a
paler hue. There is besides a group of laced alpines, in which a
distinct and regular border of colour surrounds each of the marginal
lobes.