Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 11 (1/2)

AVATAR, a Sanskrit word meaning ”descent,” specially used in Hindu mythology (and so in English) to express the incarnation of a deity visiting the earth for any purpose. The ten Avatars of Vishnu are the most famous. The Hindus believe he has appeared (1) as a fish, (2) as a tortoise, (3) as a hog, (4) as a monster, half man half lion, to destroy the giant Iranian, (5) as a dwarf, (6) as R[=a]ma, (7) again as R[=a]ma for the purpose of killing the thousand-armed giant Cartasuciriargunan, (8) as Krishna, (9) as Buddha. They allege that the tenth Avatar has yet to occur and will be in the form of a white-winged horse (Kalki) who will destroy the earth.

AVEBURY, JOHN LUBBOCK, 1ST BARON (1834- ), English banker, politician and naturalist, was born in London [v.03 p.0052] on the 30th of April 1834, the son of Sir John William Lubbock, 3rd baronet, himself a highly distinguished man of science. John Lubbock was sent to Eton in 1845; but three years later was taken into his father's bank, and became a partner at twenty-two. In 1865 he succeeded to the baronetcy. His love of science kept pace with his increasing partic.i.p.ation in public affairs. He served on commissions upon coinage and other financial questions; and at the same time acted as president of the Entomological Society and of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute. Early in his career several banking reforms of great importance were due to his initiative, while such works as _Prehistoric Times_ (1865) and _The Origin of Civilization_ (1870) were proceeding from his pen. In 1870, and again in 1874, he was elected a member of parliament for Maidstone. He lost the seat at the election of 1880; but was at once elected member for London University, of which he had been vice-chancellor since 1872. He carried numerous enactments in parliament, including the Bank Holidays Act 1871, and bills dealing with absconding debtors, shop hours regulations, public libraries, open s.p.a.ces, and the preservation of ancient monuments, and he proved himself an indefatigable and influential member of the Unionist party. A prominent supporter of the Statistical Society, he took an active part in criticizing the encroachment of munic.i.p.al trading and the increase of the munic.i.p.al debt. He was elected the first president of the Inst.i.tute of Bankers in 1879; in 1881 he was president of the British a.s.sociation, and from 1881 to 1886 president of the Linnaean Society. He received honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge (where he was Rede lecturer in 1886), Edinburgh, Dublin and Wurzburg; and in 1878 was appointed a trustee of the British Museum. From 1888 to 1892 he was president of the London Chamber of Commerce; from 1889 to 1890 vice-chairman and from 1890 to 1892 chairman of the London County Council. During the same period he served on royal commissions on education and on gold and silver. In 1890 he was appointed a privy councillor; and was chairman of the committee of design on the new coinage in 1891. In 1900 he was raised to the peerage, under the t.i.tle of Baron Avebury, and he continued to play a leading part in public life, not only by the weight of his authority on many subjects, but by the readiness with which he lent his support to movements for the public benefit. Among other matters he was a prominent advocate of proportional representation.

As an original author and a thoughtful popularizer of natural history and philosophy he had few rivals in his day, as is evidenced by the number of editions issued of many of his writings, among which the most widely-read have been: _The Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects_ (1873), _British Wild Flowers_ (1875), _Ants, Bees and Wasps_ (1882), _Flowers, Fruit and Leaves_ (1886), _The Pleasures of Life_ (1887), _The Senses, Instincts and Intelligence of Animals_ (1888), _The Beauties of Nature_ (1892), _The Use of Life_ (1894).

AVEBURY, a village in the Devizes parliamentary division of Wilts.h.i.+re, England, on the river Kennet, 8 m. by road from Marlborough. The fine church of St James contains an early font with Norman carving, a rich Norman doorway, a painted reredos, and a beautiful old roodstone in good preservation. Avebury House is Elizabethan, with a curious stone dovecot.

The village has encroached upon the remains of a huge stone circle (not quite circular), surrounded by a ditch and rampart of earth, and once approached by two avenues of monoliths. Within the larger circle were two smaller ones, placed not in the axis of the great one but on its north-eastern side, each of which consisted of a double concentric ring of stones; the centre being in one case a menhir or pillar, in the other a dolmen or tablestone resting on two uprights. Few traces remain, as the monoliths have been largely broken up for building purposes. The circle is the largest specimen of primitive stone monuments in Britain, measuring on the average 1200 ft. in diameter. The stones are all the native Sa.r.s.ens which occur everywhere in the district, and show no evidence of having been hewn. Those still remaining vary in size from 5 to 20 ft. in height above ground, and from 3 to 12 ft. in breadth. As in the case of Stonehenge, the purpose for which the Avebury monument was erected has been the source of much difference of opinion among antiquaries, Dr Stukely (_Stonehenge a Temple restored to the British Druids_, 1740) regarding it as a Druidical temple, while Fergusson (_Rude Stone Monuments_, 1872) believed that it, as well as Silbury Hill, marks the site of the graves of those who fell in the last Arthurian battle at Badon Hill (A.D. 520). The majority of antiquaries, however, see no reason for dissociating its chronological horizon from that of the numerous other a.n.a.logous monuments found in Great Britain, many of which have been shown to be burial places of the Bronze Age. Excavations were carried out here in 1908, but without throwing any important new light on the monument.

There are many barrows on the neighbouring downs, besides traces of a double oval of monoliths on Hackpen hill, and the huge mound of Silbury Hill. Waden Hill, to the south, has been, like Badbury, identified with Badon Hill, which was the traditional scene of the twelfth and last great battle of King Arthur in 520. The Roman road from Winchester to Bath skirts the south side of Silbury Hill.

At the time of the Domesday Survey, the church of Avebury (Avreberie, Abury), with two hides attached, was held in chief by Rainbold, a priest, and was bestowed by Henry III. on the abbot and monks of Cirencester, who continued to hold it until the reign of Henry VIII. The manor of Avebury was granted in the reign of Henry I. to the Benedictine monks of St George of Boucherville in Normandy, and a cell from that abbey was subsequently established here. In consequence of the war with France in the reign of Edward III., this manor was annexed by the crown, and was conferred on the newly founded college of New College, Oxford, together with all the possessions, spiritual and temporal, of the priory.

AVEIA, an ancient town of the Vestini, on the Via Claudia Nova, 6 m. S.E.

of Aquila, N.E. of the modern village of Fossa. Some remains of ancient buildings still exist, and the name Aveia still clings to the place. The identification was first made by V. M. Giovenazzi, _Della Citta di Aveia ne' Vestini_ (Rome, 1773). Paintings in the church of S. Maria ad Cryptas, of the 12th to 15th centuries, are important in the history of art. An inscription of a _stationarius_ of the 3rd century, sent here on special duty (no doubt for the suppression of brigandage), was found here in 1902 (A. von Domaszewski, _Rom. Mitt._, 1902, 330).

AVEIRO, a seaport, episcopal see, and the capital of an administrative district, formerly included in the province of Beira, Portugal; on the river Vouga, and the Lisbon-Oporto railway. Pop. (1900) 9979. Aveiro is built on the southern sh.o.r.e of a marshy lagoon, containing many small islands, and measuring about 15 m. from north to south, with an average breadth of about 1 m. The Barra Nova, an artificial ca.n.a.l about 33 ft.

deep, was constructed between 1801 and 1808, and gives access to the Atlantic ocean. The local industries include the preparation of sea-salt, the catching and curing of fish, especially sardines and oysters, and the gathering of aquatic plants (_molico_). There is also a brisk trade in wine, oil and fruit; while the Aveiro district contains copper and lead mines, besides much good pasture-land.

Aveiro is probably the Roman Talabriga. In the 16th century it was the birthplace of Joo Affonso, one of the first navigators to visit the fis.h.i.+ng-grounds of Newfoundland; and it soon became famous for its fleet of more than sixty vessels, which sailed yearly to that country, and returned laden with dried codfish. During the same century the cathedral was built, and the city was made a duchy. The t.i.tle ”duke of Aveiro” became extinct when its last holder, Dom Jose Mascarenhas e Lancaster, was burned alive for high treason, in 1759. The administrative district of Aveiro coincides with the north-western part of the province of Beira; pop. (1900) 303,169; area, 1065 sq. m.

AVELLA (anc. _Abella_), a city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Avellino, 23 m. N.E. of Naples by rail. Pop. (1901) 4107. It is finely situated in fertile territory and its nuts (_nuces Abellanae_) and fruit were renowned in Roman days. About 2 m. to the north-east lies Avella Vecchia, the ancient Abella, regarded [v.03 p.0053] by the ancients as a Chalcidian colony. An important Oscan inscription relates to a treaty with Nola, regarding a joint temple of Hercules, attributable to the 2nd century B.C. Under the early empire it had already become a colony and had perhaps been one since the time of Sulla. It has remains of the walls of the citadel and of an amphitheatre, and lay on the road from Nola to Abellinum, which was here perhaps joined by a branch from Suessula.

See J. Beloch, _Campanien_ (2nd ed., Breslau, 1890), 411 seq.

(T. AS.)

AVELLINO, a city and episcopal see of Campania, Italy, the capital of the province of Avellino, 1150 ft. above sea-level, 28 m. direct and 59 m. by rail E.N.E. of Naples, at the foot of Monte Vergine. Pop. (1901) 23,760.

There are ruins of the castle constructed in the 9th or 10th century, in which the antipope Anacletus II. crowned Count Roger II. king of Sicily and Apulia. Avellino is the junction of lines to Benevento and Rocchetta S.

Antonio. The name is derived from the ancient Abellinum, the ruins of which lie 2 m. north-east, close to the village of Atripalda, and consist of remains of city walls and an amphitheatre in _opus reticulatum_, _i.e._ of the early imperial period, when Abellinum appears to have been the chief place of a tribe, to which belonged also the independent communities of the _Abellinates cognomine Protropi_ among the Hirpini, and the _Abellinates cognominati Marsi_ among the Apulians (Nissen, _Italische Landeskunde_, ii.

822). It lay on the boundary of Campania and the territory of the Hirpini, at the junction of the roads from Nola (and perhaps also from Suessula) and Salernum to Beneventum.

The Monte Vergine (4165 ft.) lies 4 m. to the N.W. of Avellino; upon the summit is a sanctuary of the Virgin, founded in 1119, which contains a miraculous picture attributed to S. Luke (the greatest festival is on the 8th of September). The present church is baroque in style, but contains some works of art of earlier periods. The important archives have been transported to Naples.

(T. AS.)

AVEMPACE [Abu Bakr Mu[h.]ammad ibn Ya[h.]ya, known as Ibn B[=a]jja or Ibn [S.]a'igh, _i.e._ son of the goldsmith, the name being corrupted by the Latins into Avempace, Avenpace or Aben Pace], the earliest and one of the most distinguished of the Arab philosophers of Spain. Little is known of the details of his life. He was born probably at Saragossa towards the close of the 11th century. According to Ibn Kh[=a]q[=a]n, a contemporary writer, he became a student of the exact sciences and was also a musician and a poet. But he was a philosopher as well, and apparently a sceptic. He is said to have rejected the Koran, to have denied the return to G.o.d, and to have regarded death as the end of existence. But even in that orthodox age he became vizier to the amir of Murcia. Afterwards he went to Valencia, then to Saragossa. After the fall of Saragossa (1119) he went to Seville, then to Xativa, where he is said to have returned to Islam to save his life. Finally he retired to the Almoravid court at Fez, where he was poisoned in 1138. Ibn 'Usaibi'a gives a list of twenty-five of his works, but few of these remain. He had a distinct influence upon Averroes (see ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY).

For his life see McG. de Slane's trans. of Ibn Khallik[=a]n's _Biographical Dictionary_ (Paris and London, 1842), vol. iii. pp. 130 ff., and Ibn 'Usaibi'a's biography translated in P. de Gayangos' edition of the _History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain_, by al-Maqqari (London, 1840), vol.

ii., appendix, p. xii. List of extant works in C. Brockelmann's _Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur_, vol. i. p. 460. For his philosophy cf. T. J. de Boer's _The History of Philosophy in Isl[=a]m_ (London, 1903), ch. vi.

(G. W. T.)

AVENARIUS, RICHARD HEINRICH LUDWIG (1843-1896), German philosopher, was born in Paris on the 19th of November 1843. His education, begun in Zurich and Berlin, was completed at the university of Leipzig, where he graduated in 1876. In 1877 he became professor of philosophy in Zurich, where he died on the 18th of August 1896. At Leipzig he was one of the founders of the _Akademisch-philosophische Verein_, and was the first editor of the _Vierteljahrsschrift fur wissenschaftliche Philosophie_. In 1868 he published an essay on the Pantheism of Spinoza. His chief works are _Philosophie als Denken der Welt gema.s.s dem Princip des kleinsten Kraftma.s.ses_ (1876) and the _Kritik der reinen Erfahrung_ (1888-1890). In these works he made an attempt to co-ordinate thought and action. Like Mach, he started from the principle of economy of thinking, and in the _Kritik_ endeavoured to explain pure experience in relation to knowledge and environment. He discovers that statements dependent upon environment const.i.tute pure experience. This philosophy, called Empirio-criticism, is not, however, a realistic but an idealistic dualism, nor can it be called materialism.

See Wundt, _Philos. Stud._ xiii. (1897); Carstanjen and w.i.l.l.y in _Zeitsch.

f. wiss. Philos_. xx. (1896), 361 ff.; xx. 57 ff.; xxii. 53 ff.; J.

Petzoldt's _Einfuhrung in d. Philos. d. reinen Erfahrung_ (1900).

AVENGER OF BLOOD, the person, usually the nearest kinsman of the murdered man, whose duty it was to avenge his death by killing the murderer. In primitive societies, before the evolution of settled government, or the uprise of a systematized criminal law, crimes of violence were regarded as injuries of a personal character to be punished by the sufferer or his kinsfolk. This right of vengeance was common to most countries, and in many was the subject of strict regulations and limitations. It was prevented from running into excesses by the law of sanctuary (_q.v._) and in many lands the inst.i.tution of blood-money, and the wergild offered the wrong-doer a mode of escaping from his enemies' revenge. The Mosaic law recognized the right of vengeance, but not the money-compensation. The Koran, on the contrary, while sanctioning the vengeance, also permits pecuniary commutation for murder.