ch. 8.) It appears a.so that they occupied several places in Palestine among the Canaanites, just as some Sclavonic Wendish settlements are found among the Saxons in Germany. In the land of Ephraim we find a mountain of the Amalekites where Abdon, the son of Hillel, was buried in Pirathon. There dwelt also many Kenites among the Amalekites, whom Josephus names Zikirai. (1 Sam. xv. 6; Ant. vi. 8; Judges xii. 15; compare v. 14.)

We read in Gen. xiv. 7, that Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellassar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of nations, came to Enmishpat (Fountain of Judgment), which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites. Kadesh is placed, in Asheton's Historical Map of Palestine, in 34° 58′ E. long. and three minutes N.N.E. of Enmishpat; but Moses informs us, that Enmishvat is Kadesh. According to Rabbi Shlomo Ben Jarchi, 'the country of the Amalekites' means, in Gen. xiv. 7, the country which was afterwards inhabited by the Amalekites; as we might say that Cæsar went into France, because Gaul was afterwards occupied by the Franks, or as Jacob set his face to mount Gilead, although this name of Gilead is of a later date. This opinion has been generally adopted; for Amalek, one of the dukes, that came of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, in the land of Edom was considered the progenitor of the Amalekites, and therefore they could not exist in the days of Abraham. Gen. xxxvi. 1, 12, 16. But the name of Amalek was, perhaps, given to two different nations. The Arabians mention Imlik, Amalik, or Amaleka among the aborigines of Arabia, the remains of which were mingled with the descendants of Joctan and Adnan, and became Mostarabs or Mocarabes, that is, Arabians mixed with foreigners; and they give these names also to the Canaanites and Philistines, which nations were probably related to each other. According to Arabian writers, the inhabitants of North Africa were descended from the Amalekites, who were expelled by Joshua. This assertion has probably some reference to the Carthaginians being a Phoenician colony. (D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or., art. Amlac; Abulfeda in Pococke's Spec. Hist. Arabum, ed. White, pp. 464, 465.)

Some Arabians make Amalek a descendant of Ham, and father of Aad; but Abulfeda (Historia Anteislamica, ed. Fleischer, p. 16) makes him descend from Shem. Ebn Arabshah (in Vita Timuri, ed. Manger., ii. 780) calls Amalek the great, on account of his descent from the giant race of Ham. (Comp. Relandi Palæstina, p. 78-82; J. D. Michaelis, Spicilegium Geographia Heb. Externæ, t. i. p. 170177; Alb. Schultens' Monum. Ant. Hist. Arabum; Gesenius in Ersch und Gruber.)

The Amalekites were the first who opposed the Israelites on their march from Egypt. (Exod. xvii. 8-13; Jos. Ant. iii. 2.) They suffered great loss, but were afterwards assisted by the Canaanites, and obtained a great victory. (Num. xiv. 39-45.) During the time of the Judges, the Israelites were frequently oppressed by the Amalekites, Ammonites, and Midianites. (Judges iii. 13; vi. 3; Joseph. v. 7.) Saul gathered 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah, and came to the city of Amalek, (the name of which is unknown,) and laid waste the valley, and said unto the Kenites, 'Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt; or, as Josephus says, he spared them because they were related to Reguel, the father-in-law of Moses. So the Kenites departed from the Amalekites; and Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur, that is over against Egypt. Saul took their king Agag alive, who was cut to pieces by the prophet Samuel. Saul was rejected from being king because he had spared Agag and the best cattle of the Amalekites. (1 Sam. xv.; Jos. Ant. vi. 8.) David warred against them (1 Sam. xxvii. 8.); and therefore the Amalekites plundered the town of Ziklag and set it on fire, but David overtook them in the wilderness, and recovered all that they had carried away. (1 Sam. xxx. 18; Ant. vi. 15.)

At a later period, David dedicated silver and gold unto the Lord, which he had taken from Amalek and other subdued nations. (2 Sam. viii. 12.) The Amalekites were finally extirpated by the Shimeonites, who occupied their country during the reign of Hezekiah. (1 Chron. iv. 43.) Thus, according to the direction of Moses, the remembrance of Amalek was blotted out from under heaven, because they slew the hindmost of the Israelites who fainted in the wilderness. (Deut. xxv. 17, 19.) But it seems that some

of them escaped to neighbouring countries, where they continued to hate the Israelites, for we find that Haman, the Agagite, being, probably, a descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites, endeavoured to destroy Israel in the empire of Ahasuerus. (Esther iii. 1.)

and ילק or,לקק has been derived from עמלק The name

explained to be a people which licks up or taketh away every-
a people which
thing, like ph, the locust; or, from P,
beats down; or, more probably, from p, for, a people
which reigns, a royal nation, a nation of the king, a set of
royalists. The name of the Amalekites may be descriptive
of their prowess; and Balaam's saying, (Num. xxiv. 20,)
Amalek was the first of the nations, seems to express
dignity rather than antiquity, the most eminent of the
nations.

AMALFI, a town in the kingdom of Naples, built on the
steep declivity of a mountain overlooking the Gulf of Sa-
lerno, 40° 37′ N, lat., 14° 35' E. long. In the early part of
the middle ages, Amalfi was a republic, with a scanty ter-
ritory, but renowned for its trade with Egypt and the East.
It took part in the crusades, and its citizens founded in
Palestine the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, from which
the celebrated military order took its name.
Amalfi was
taken about the end of the eleventh century by Robert
Guiscard, the Norman Conqueror, at the same time as
Salerno, and was erected into a duchy. William of Apulia,
the poet historian, describes Amalfi at that time as the great
mart for eastern goods, frequented by Arabs, Indians,
Africans, and Sicilians. In the subsequent wars between
the Normans and Pope Innocent II., who was supported by
the Emperor Lotharius, Amalfi was taken, in 1137, by the
Pisan fleet, who were auxiliaries of the emperor.
on this occasion that a solitary copy of the Pandects of
Justinian, a work long lost to the world, is said to have
been found by the Pisan conquerors amidst other plunder
within the walls of Amalfi, and from that epoch the study
of the Roman law was revived in Europe. Flavio Gioia,
a citizen of Amalfi, found out the mariner's compass about
the beginning of the fourteenth century; he probably de-
rived the first idea of it from some eastern trader, it having
been used in a rude form in the Indian seas long before.
The present town of Amalfi, though much fallen from its
former splendour, still retains some remains of trade, and
its inhabitants are reckoned good mariners. It has a very
antient cathedral, and stands in a romantic position, thirteen
miles W.S.W. of Salerno,

It was

AMALGAM, a compound of two or more metals, of which one is always mercury; and this circumstance distinguishes an amalgam from a mere alloy. Nature presents us with only one amalgam, which is of silver, and is termed by mineralogists native amalgam: it occurs in Hungary, Sweden, &c., and is met with either semifluid, massive, or crystallized in rhombic dodecahedrons. Klaproth found it to consist of 64 parts of mercury and 36 of silver, out of 100 parts. Most metals may be amalgamated with mercury, and the combination appears to depend on chemical affinity. When the cohesion of a metal is slight, as in the cases of potassium and sodium; or when its affinity for mercury is considerable, as in the instances of gold and silver, amalgamation takes place readily by mere contact. When, on the other hand, the cohesion of a metal is strong, or its affinity for mercury is weak, heat, or intermediate action, or both, are requisite to effect amalgamation.

There are several circumstances which show that amalgamation is the result of chemical affinity; the crystalline form of the native amalgam is strongly indicative of it, and it is confirmed by analysis: for if the quantities of mercury and silver were 64 of the former and 35 2 of the latter metal, instead of 36, as abovementioned, they would be in the proportions of 200 to 110, or 1 atom of each.

The phenomena also, which accompany the action of mercury upon other metals, evince its chemical nature: if 44 parts of mercury be mixed with 1 part of potassium, combination occurs with the evolution of much heat, and when the resulting amalgam is cold, it is hard, and has the appearance of silver: when the quantity of mercury exceeds 100 parts to 1 part of potassium, the compound is liquid; and an amalgam containing only 15 per cent. of potassium is susceptible of crystallizing. The density of an amalgam exceeds that of the mean of the metals; this and the tendency exhibited by one or both metals to oxidize, are additional indications of chemical combination. If mercury and lead

be shaken together in a bottle containing atmospheric air, its oxygen is absorbed, and a black powder is formed which contains an oxide of one metal or of both of them.

There are some metals, it has been already observed, which require heat in order to amalgamate them; of this, antimony offers an example. In order to effect combination, it must be melted, and while liquid mixed with hot mercury. Mere heat, however, causes scarcely any action between iron and mercury. It has been stated, that they may be amalgamated by mixing the filings of the metal with powdered alum, and rubbing them together in a mortar with a little water: after trituration the alum may be washed out. By the intervention of tin or zinc, iron may be combined with mercury, and a double amalgam is formed. Platina also unites with mercury by the intervention of the amalgam of potassium; but not by direct action.

:

formed a constellation of genius of which any city might be proud. Wieland was appointed tutor to the two sons of the Duchess. Goethe was also induced to settle at Weimar, where he resided ever after, and filled a distinguished place in the ducal council. Herder was appointed court chaplain, consistorial councillor, and inspector of the schools. The Duchess Amalia withdrew from public life in 1775, having given up the sovereign authority to her eldest son, then of age: she retired to her delightful country residence of Tieffurth, where she continued to surround herself with men of talent and learning. She travelled into Italy in 1788, and returned from that country with an increased caste for the arts, especially for music. The Duchess was a sincere patroness of genius, which she delighted in discovering and raising from obscurity and poverty. She died in 1807, regretted by all who knew her.

Another town of the same name usually distinguished as ST. AMAND MONT ROND, is in the department of the Cher, and on a tributary of the river Cher, not far from its junction. It has a population of 6000 persons, who are chiefly occupied in trade; it is one of the most commercial towns in the department, and is the mart of the grain, wine, chestnuts, ship-timber, and cattle of the district: in the season a considerable quantity of mushrooms is gathered. There are some iron works here. It is 25 miles south of Bourges, and 156 south of Paris.

This town was built in the year 1410, on the ruins of a place called Orval, which the English had burned. It is the capital of an arrondissement.

Having stated some examples of the different modes in AMAND LES EAUX, ST., a town in France in the which amalgams may be formed, we shall notice their department of Nord, on the river Scarpe, and on the road general properties. Amalgams are either liquid, soft, or from Lille to Valenciennes, about seven miles N.W. of the hard; their form being dependent, in some cases, upon the latter. The population amounts to about 9000; and the quantity of mercury employed; and, in others, upon the inhabitants carry on a considerable trade in oil, and in nature of the metal amalgamated: thus an amalgam con- thread made of the flax grown in the neighbourhood. There sisting of 80 parts of mercury and 1 part of sodium is solid, are manufactures of porcelain, of lace, and of leather. There whilst a compound of 15 parts of mercury and 1 part of tin are some mineral waters and baths about half a league from is liquid. The liquid amalgams resemble mercury in ap- the town, in a marshy plain, and nearly surrounded by the pearance, except that the greater part of them flow less wood of St. Amand. The town was ceded to France by readily solid amalgams are brittle. In general, amalgams treaty in 1714, and previous to the French Revolution it are white; they are all crystallizable, and then form com- contained an abbey with a considerable ecclesiastical estapounds of definite proportions. To prove this, it is only requi-blishment. The abbey church is much admired for its site to dissolve a proper quantity of a metal in mercury with architecture. heat, and to allow the amalgam to cool; it then separates into two portions, one of which is liquid and the other is solid and crystallized; the fluid portion may, however, be regarded as a solution of the definite compound in an indefinite excess of mercury. The amalgams of the more oxidable metals, as of potassium and sodium, are decomposed by exposure to the air and absorbing oxygen, and they decompose water with the evolution of hydrogen gas; the double amalgam of iron and zinc does not rapidly undergo any change, and is not attracted by the magnet. All amalgams are decomposed by a red heat, the mercury being distilled, and the more fixed metals remaining. The process of amalgamation and decomposition is employed to separate gold and silver from their ores; the mercury obtained by decomposing the amalgams is distilled and repeatedly used for the same purpose, with comparatively little loss. The amalgams of gold and silver are employed in the processes of gilding and plating. The amalgam of tin is largely used in what is termed silvering mirrors, and various amalgams of tin and zinc are employed for exciting electricity in the machine. These compounds, as well as other amalgams, will be treated of under each particular metal. Some curious effects result from the action of amalgams upon each other: if mercury be added to the liquid amalgam of potassium and sodium, an instant solidification ensues, and heat enough to inflame the latter metals is evolved. When, on the other hand, a solid amalgam of bismuth is put in contact with one of lead, they become fluid, and the thermometer sinks during their action. There is a curious compound called an amalgam of ammonia, the real nature of which has not been satisfactorily explained. When mercury is negatively electrified in a solution of ammonia, or an amalgam of mercury and potassium is placed upon moistened muriate of ammonia, the metal increases in volume and becomes of the consistence of butter; this appearance has been supposed to be owing to the combination of a metal, which Berzelius calls ammonium, with mercury. When thrown into water it effervesces copiously, hydrogen gas is given off, and ammonia remains in solution. Gay-Lussac and Thenard have maintained the opinion that the amalgam consists of mercury united to azote and hydrogen; the latter being in larger proportion than in ammonia.

AMALIA, wife of the Duke of Saxe Weimar, lost her husband when she was hardly twenty years of age, and found herself at the head of the government in troubled times, during the wars between the two great German powers, Austria and Frederic of Prussia. The Duchess of Weimar, however, contrived to direct in safety the affairs of her little state, and after the restoration of peace she turned all her thoughts to the internal improvement of her country. The city of Weimar became the resort of the most distinguished literary men of Germany, whom the Duchess encouraged by her liberal patronage to come and reside at her court. Wieland, Herder, Schiller, and Goethe,

There are several other small places of this name in different parts of France.

AMA'NUS, a chain of lofty mountains separating Cilicia from Syria. [See TAURUS.] The name Amanus was given by the Greek and Roman geographers, and is also sometimes applied by modern geographers to the range which, beginning at the mountain of Cape Hynzyr on the Gulf of Scanderoon, runs in a north-eastern direction into the interior.

AMARA, or AMARASINHA, an antient Hindu grammarian, and author of one of the oldest and most esteemed original vocabularies of Sanskrit nouns, called after his name Amara Kosha, i. e. the Thesaurus of Amara, but sometimes quoted under the title of Trikanda, i. e. the Tripartite. Owing to the almost total want of records on the internal history of India, the æra at which Amara lived can only be ascertained by conjecture. Numerous authorities assert that he was a contemporary of King Vikramaditya; and his name is included in a memorial verse among the Nine Gems, or nine distinguished poets and scholars who adorned the court of that prince. The exact date of this Vikramaditya's reign is, however, still subject to discussion, as in Indian history several kings of that name occur. Tradition places Amara and the Nine Gems generally under the first Vikramaditya, 56 years before our æra. Mr. Bentley (Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. p. 242-244) supposes the Vikramaditya under whose reign Amara lived, to be the successor of Raja Bhoja-deva, as sovereign of Dhara in Malwa, who reigned during the latter part of the eleventh century. Mr. Colebrooke, (Algebra from the Sanskrit, Introd. pp. 45-51,) from astronomical data in the work of Varahamihira, (another of the Nine Gems,) has assumed the close of the fifth century, or about the year 472, as the probable epoch when that astronomer wrote, and Vikramaditya and the Nine Gems lived. This opinion, with regard to Amara, is supported by the frequent reference made to his Dictionary as to an antient and classical work of standard authority, by numerous writers, to many of whom an antiquity of several centuries at least can be confidently attributed.

Of Amara's life little is known. He embraced the tenets of the Bauddhas, a heterodox sect; and all his compositions,

pulæ.

The species are found chiefly in tropical countries, where they are often troublesome weeds. The cock's-comb, the globe-amaranth, the prince's-feather, the love-lies-bleeding of our gardens belong to the order; which does not contain a single species in which any deleterious property has been found. AMARAPURA, a city in the Burman empire, six miles east of Ava, in 21° 55' N. lat., and 96° 7'E. long. This city was founded in 1783, by the monarch then on the Burmese throne, and was declared the capital of the empire. The seat of government has since been removed, or rather has returned, to Ava.

with the exception of his Dictionary, perished in the perse-containing a single seed, which has an embryo curved round cutions raised by the Brahmans against the persons and a central farinaceous albumen; leaves, destitute of stiwritings of the Bauddhas, which began in the third century, and reached their height during the fifth and sixth. Like other original Sanskrit vocabularies, that of Amara is in metre, to aid the memory. The whole is divided into three books. In the first two words relating to kindred objects are collected in one or more verses, and placed in chapters. Thus the first book commences with words for heaven; next follow the names and attributes of the several deities; then come terms for space, the cardinal points of the compass, &c. The third book is supplementary: it contains epithets, a list of homonymous words, (arranged alphabetically like many Arabic Dictionaries, according to the final consonants,) particles, and adverbs, (considered as indeclinable nouns by the Hindu grammarians,) and remarks on the gender of substantives. The Sanskrit Dictionaries or Koshas, do not include the verbs of the language, the stems or roots being arranged and explained in separate lists. The Amara Kosha contains only about 10,000 different words. In a language so copious as the Sanskrit, this number appears small: but in consequence of the great regularity and consistency with which, in this language, compound nouns and derivatives are formed, very few of these require to be inserted and explained in a Dictionary. Real deficiencies in the list of Amara are supplied partly by commentaries on it, and partly by more recent Dictionaries, one of which, the Trikandasesha, by Purushottamadeva, is, what its title implies, purposely compiled as a supplement to the tripartite work of Amara.

An excellent edition of the Amarakosha, with marginal explanations and notes in English, and an alphabetic index, was published by Mr. H. T. Colebrooke at Serampore, 1808, 4to.; reprinted, 1829, 8vo. An edition of the mere Sanskrit text, and table of contents likewise in Sanskrit, appeared at Calcutta in 1813, in a volume with three other original Sanskrit vocabularies. (Asiat. Res. vii. p. 214, seq. Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary, Preface, p. 5. seq. first edit.) AMARANTA'CEÆ a natural order of apetalous dicotyle

[Amaranthus polygamus.] 1. A calyx and bractea with stamens. 2. The same with the pistillum. 3. The pistillum opening. 4. A seed. 5. A seed cut down, showing the embryo. 6. The embryo-all magnified. donous plants, remarkable for the dry coloured scales of which all their bractea and floral envelopes are composed; a character by which they are principally known from Chenopodea. Their essential distinction is briefly this: calyx, dry, coloured, not falling away; petals, wanting; stamens, five or more; ovarium, quite simple, superior; fruit, an utricle,

Amarapura stands near the east bank of the Irawaddy, and at a short distance from a branch of the same river, which is to the east of Amarapura, and joins the main stream immediately below Ava. With very few exceptions, the houses are built of wood: many of the public buildings have a very striking appearance, owing to the splendour of the gilding with which their roofs are covered, both within and on the outside. From the nature of the material employed in building, there is great risk of accidents from fire. To guard against these, the better kind of houses are surrounded by enclosures, and all are covered with tiles; besides which, pots filled with water are placed on the ridge of the roof, to be in readiness if a fire should break out. Notwithstanding these precautions, nearly the whole of the city, consisting of 20,000 to 25,000 houses, was burnt to the ground, in March, 1810 The population at that time was estimated at more than 170,000; but owing partly to the calamity just mentioned, and partly also to the removal of the seat of government in 1819, the present estimate of its population does not go beyond 30,000 persons.

The fortifications of Amarapura are equal in strength to most of the native fortresses in India. The fort is a square building with walls twenty feet high, which are faced with brick, and strongly built. Each angle of the fort contains a large square projecting bastion, and each side has a principal gate, besides two smaller ones between it and the bastions, so that there are in all twelve gates. Each side of the fort is somewhat more than 7000 feet long, and the whole is surrounded by a broad ditch, faced with brick. The fort is built on the northern bank of the lake, the waters of which wash its walls whenever the lake is swelled during the rainy season.

The manufacture of jewellery was formerly carried on extensively in this city, an entire street having been filled with the houses of goldsmiths; most of these shops have now disappeared. The fort contains a royal library, the books composing which are contained in about one hundred large, well-filled wooden chests. The river Irawaddy offers the advantage of water carriage to and from the city, which is situated near a fertile district, where abundance of wheat is raised of a good quality. (Captain Cox's Notes on the Burman Empire.-See also Berghaus' Asia, and his Atlus.)

AMARYLLI'DEE, or the narcissus tribe of plants, is a group of monocotyledonous genera, to which the daffodil, the belladonna and Guernsey lilies, and the showy Brunsvigias and blood-flowers (haemanthus) of the Cape of Good Hope belong. They are characterized by having six stamens, a highly-coloured flower, and an inferior ovarium. The beauty of their blossoms serves as a cloak to their poisonous properties, and shows how little the external appearances of plants are to be trusted in judging of their virtues. To form an opinion only from their aspect, these would be pronounced the most harmless of plants, while in fact their bulbs are dangerous poisons; the juice of that of hæmanthus toxicarius is inspissated by the Hottentots, who smear their arrow-heads with it; other kinds are not less fatal, and even the common daffodil contains within its bulbs an acrid irritating principle which renders it a powerful emetic. Like many other poisonous families, this occasionally secretes a kind of fæcula, or flour, which, when separated from the juice that is naturally mixed with it, becomes a wholesome article of food; the arrow-root of Chili is yielded by an alströmeria, which belongs to amaryllideœ.

The species, which are chiefly scattered over Brazil, Africa, and tropical Asia, are nearly all bulbous; a few only acquire a high degree of development and lose their bulbous character, as the doryanthes of New Holland. No tribe is

more admired by cultivators, in consequence of the universal in the rock, to bring, as he says, water from the mountains beauty of its flowers.